His Majesty believes that the so-called League of Nations peacekeeping is an act of aggression under the cloak of peace to expand the influence and control of European countries in the world in the name of maintaining peace, and to the detriment of the vested interests of other countries for this purpose. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThis is the first large-scale peacekeeping operation carried out by the League of Nations, and once European countries achieve their goal of expansion through what actions, then from now on, they will continue to use the name of peacekeeping to suppress dissenters, especially Japan, which they regard as their number one competitor, so ...... Your Majesty, Your Majesty's opinion is that the Australian peacekeeping operation must not be allowed to succeed, but it is not wise to directly confront the League of Nations, and we can take more covert and clever means to turn Australia into a swamp and let those self-righteous Europeans fall into it! ”

When War Minister Hideki Tojo stated these remarks, although Emperor Hirohito's expression did not change at all, the fierce look in his eyes was significantly softened. The loyalty of the Japanese army to him was unquestionable, but the officers' thinking was often too extreme, like raising a dog that was out of control and rampant, and even if it would not commit violence against its real owner at any time, it repeatedly forced its master to act according to its will, which was not a pleasant thing in any way. Therefore, when the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Navy reported on the current state of the armed forces and the various voices of officers at all levels, Hirohito once again expressed his disgust.

"I heard...... The League of Nations currently has set a peacekeeping force of 200,000 troops, and 100,000 will be sent to Australia this time? Hirohito set his sights on Foreign Minister Yoyo Matsuoka.

"Yes, Your Majesty, this is an official resolution of the League of Nations."

Unlike most of his predecessors, Matsuoka is the quintessential diplomatic hardliner who shouted when Japan announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations. At the same time, he was also a supporter and instigator of the war of aggression against China, and Manchurian and Mongolian are Japan's lifeblood is his mantra, and in response to questions from foreign journalists, he once declared: "Japan is expanding, just imagine what country in the process of expansion has not opened a knife against its neighbors?" Ask the Amerindians and Mexicans how the young United States of America brutally tortured them years ago. In fact, this was not only Matsuoka's personal opinion, but also represented the Japanese government's view of Asia at the time.

Without waiting for Hirohito to ask, Tojo took the initiative to explain: "Your Majesty, judging from the information we have, the peacekeeping troops sent to Australia will exceed 100,000 people, and according to the pre-filing of the peacekeeping force garrison submitted to us by the League of Nations, the peacekeeping troops will be deployed in dozens of cities in the southern, eastern, and central states of Australia as battalions and companies. Correspondingly, our army will station about 40,000 regular troops and 40,000-50,000 security forces in the northwest and north of Australia to protect the security of the areas where expatriates from Asian countries gather. If the League of Nations forces a referendum within the year, we can be sure that we will retain control of two states in the northern part of Australia, so as to form a confrontation with the other three states where white people live, and then wait for an opportunity to create a vicious incident to divert the energy of the League of Nations peacekeepers in southern Australia. ”

The Emperor still did not have any change in his expression, and he asked calmly, "Are you sure to do this?" ”

Tojo replied with a serious face: "At present, the League of Nations is basically under the control of Germany and its servant states, and we have risen too fast in recent years, and we have been envied and wary of people everywhere in the country. ”

As soon as he heard this, Matsuoka immediately muttered: "If it doesn't work, it's better to start a war with them now, if they dare to send the main fleet from Europe, we will let them taste the bitter fruits that the Russians tasted in the Battle of Tsushima back then!" ”

Admiral Yoshida, who has served in the fleet for many years, calmly refuted: "This is the idea of a junior officer and an ordinary sailor, the rules of naval warfare today are different from those of more than 30 years ago, not to mention that the Australian waters are also far away for us, in another five years, we may be able to win, but now, the odds of victory are probably only two or three percent!" ”

In front of the emperor, he was ridiculed as "the idea of a low-ranking officer and an ordinary sailor", Matsuoka's face suddenly turned red and white for a while, but it was not easy to attack, so he had to say hatefully: "Past history tells us that the best way to deal with the country that uses diplomatic means to suppress us is to use force to fight back, not to make weak concessions!" ”

In fact, from a macro point of view, the League of Nations' dispatch of peacekeeping troops into Australia is not only a suppressive measure taken by European and American countries against Japan, but also an important means for the League of Nations to maintain its own authority. As we all know, the birth of the League of Nations is considered to embody a completely new concept and model, and its purpose is to make war a thing of the past, and in order to maintain the peace and security of the international community and to deal with international disputes fairly and effectively, it is necessary to establish its absolute authority in the handling of international issues, all countries and regions must unconditionally believe in and obey the organization, and all countries, especially the major powers, must give full support to the organization to adopt strong means to settle all international disputes justly and reasonably, otherwise, The failure of the League of Nations to succeed in the maintenance of peace, which was its raison d'être, negates the value of the Organization's existence.

However, at the beginning of its establishment, the League of Nations only provided for the "maintenance of peace and security" in the abstract, and the Treaty of the League of Nations did not declare war illegal, but only did not allow member states to engage in war under certain conditions, and the League of Nations required member states to undertake the obligation not to resort to force in the settlement of international disputes, but it did not completely prohibit resorting to war, and not to engage in war could only be a voluntary commitment of its member states, and the aggressor country could often evade its responsibility for war under the pretext of "self-defense". For example, the "Non-War Pact" was originally a treaty signed by the major powers on the limitation of war, and it was precisely because the League of Nations did not have clear provisions on the issue of prohibiting war that the major powers would put forward various reservations when signing the "Non-War Pact," thus leaving a "back door" for them to defend their own interests and wage war in the future.

In addition, the League of Nations has always lacked the ability to maintain peace, and the international force for maintaining peace under the centralized leadership was not formally established until the end of World War II, and before the expansion of the peacekeeping force led by Germany, its power was very weak and its influence was quite limited. Moreover, the voting procedure of the League of Nations, which made it conditional on the unanimous adoption of all resolutions, was not binding on a country without its consent. In this way, any State could use the veto to oppose any measure to consolidate peace and to give a veneer of legitimacy to acts of aggression. This made it impossible for the League of Nations to effectively exercise its authority and effectiveness as an international organization in general, so that until the early forties it had not once been able to stop aggression or respond forcefully to acts of aggression as it had been envisaged. In the South American War, the various appeals of the League of Nations to cut their throats were directly ignored by the participating countries; Japan launched two wars of aggression against China, and the various sanctions of the League of Nations were directly ignored by the emerging Eastern Empire; The Italian-Turkish oil field dispute has led to the scourge of war, and the League of Nations' mediation and intervention have not been able to play a substantive role, and the weakness and compromise shown by the League of Nations have exposed its serious shortcomings in the field of international security more and more obviously......

The most typical example occurred in 1923, when the Italian invasion of Corfu, Greece. At that time, the Italian general Trini and his military attaché were ambushed and killed in Greece. The Italian government used this as an excuse to present an ultimatum to the Greek government that would damage the reputation and sovereignty of Greece, but Greece refused to carry out all of it, and Italy sent troops to occupy the Greek island of Corfu. Greece called on the Council of the League of Nations to settle the dispute between the two sides fairly, while Italy insisted that the Council of Ambassadors propose measures for the rehabilitation of the victims, but did not mention a solution to the high-stakes question of Corfu. The Council of Ambassadors acted in favor of Italy, despite the claims of many countries, to force the withdrawal of Italian troops. The Council of the League of Nations made concessions to the Ambassadors' Conference, and finally proposed a plan to force Greece to make concessions, inflicting unjust diplomatic humiliation on the weaker countries. The Corfu incident fully illustrates the total submission of the League of Nations to the hegemonic demands of the imperialist powers in mediating disputes between the powerful and the weak, and also shows that the League of Nations is not only weak and powerless in dealing with aggressive actions, but also acts as a tiger. The Corfu incident dealt a serious blow to the prestige of the League of Nations, which, on the one hand, trampled on the sovereignty of its weaker and smaller neighbors by force by the great powers, and the League of Nations was not only unable to provide protection to the weak countries, but on the contrary promoted the full satisfaction of the demands of the aggressors; On the other hand, in dealing with the Corfu incident, the League of Nations subservient to the Council of Ambassadors undermined its authority to deal with international disputes in the future.

And the worst influence is the war of aggression against China launched by Japan. In 1933, Japan took the opportunity of the outbreak of World War II to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China, when the League of Nations was basically paralyzed. Seven years later, in 1940, World War II had long ended, and the League of Nations, under the leadership of the Western Allies, tried to stabilize the new world order. At that time, the Chinese representatives complained to the Council of the League of Nations against Japan's aggression against China's territory and the violation of the League of Nations Treaty, and demanded that the League of Nations take action to stop Japan's threat to peace and the deterioration of the situation. "In order to prevent the situation endangering peace from expanding" and to return to the pre-war state, the Council of the League of Nations subsequently made a resolution to send a League of Nations investigation mission to China to investigate the responsibility and development of the war on the ground. After more than two months of investigation, the investigation team produced the "Report of the Investigation Mission of the League of Nations," which affirmed the Japanese army's acts of aggression and illegal occupation of Chinese territory, and gave a fairly and objective account of the causes and process of the war of aggression against China and the formation of the puppet state of Manchukuo. When the report was published, it aroused strong repercussions around the world, but due to the Japanese government's ignorance, its only role was to serve as a strong basis for the League of Nations to impose sanctions against Japan......

(End of chapter)